


Thus Was Life

by ptw30



Series: Ninja!AU [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Brothers, Fluff and Angst, Fluffity Fluff Fluff, Gen, KagaKuro - Freeform, Kagami is a ninja, This is all Sinamour's fault., but not, kagakuroweek2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 17:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4969525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ptw30/pseuds/ptw30
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For KagaKuroWeek2015: Tetsuya doesn’t know who Kagami Taiga is, and he doesn’t need to.<br/>Prompt: I’m glad I met you/Gratitude/Confession</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thus Was Life

**Author's Note:**

> Can I blame this on Sinamour’s awesome stories? I can? Okay, then! (Go Read [ Here's Home](http://sinamour.tumblr.com/post/130616982002/kgkrweek-2015-prompt-1-shadow-and-light) and [ Leaving Home now!)](http://sinamour.tumblr.com/post/130753902412/kgkr-week-prompt-3-i-believe-in-him)

Tetsuya wanted for nothing from the moment Taiga brought him back to the penthouse in one of the finest towers in Neo-Tokyo. He went to the best pre-school, let alone the best schools. He was given a top-of-the-line handheld terminal as soon as Taiga felt he was old enough to have one. He always had the latest model of laptops and gaming consoles. Taiga cooked him gourmet meals with international inspiration, and Tetsuya swiped a bento off the counter every morning before getting on the skytrain. 

Of course, Taiga wasn’t the perfect parent, but he was there. He learned how to change diapers and warm a bottle for midnight feedings. He coaxed his little charge into his lap when he had a nightmare, safeguarding Tetsuya with his larger frame and soothing him with a deep purr. He was there for school plays and back-to-school nights. He even brought Tetsuya down to the local court and taught him how to play basketball, and Tetsuya looked up at him with those pale blue eyes filled with nothing but warmth and gratitude. 

Taiga smiled, beaming with pure delight as he ruffled the forest of blue hair on Tetsuya’s head, and encouraged him to take another shot. Sometimes Daiki joined them and Ryouta and even Shintarou, and Satsuki would watch from the bench, offering lemons Tetsuya barely touched. (He liked oranges better.)

And thus was life. 

But as Tetsuya grew—from infant to child to teen—an uneasiness began to settle in Taiga’s gut, gnawing at him whenever he watched Tetsuya head off to school, all prim and proper in his blue and black suit from Seirin, a local gifted institution. Eventually, Tetsuya would ask about their arrangement. Why did he live with “Taiga” and not “Mom” or “Dad”? Where was his “real” family? Was he truly Japanese? Then why was his skin so pale and his hair color different from most?

Why did he look so much like the boy emperor who had yet to be coronated but who took over after his parents were killed just days after his birth, an impossible challenge for any child? Why did Taiga insist in teaching him several forms of martial arts and didn’t allow him out without a chaperon, even now? 

And just who was Kagami Taiga, who sometimes went away for days and weeks—and once, when Tetsuya was twelve, for a whole month and returned with limited mobility in his arm before the surgery? 

Taiga had no answers other than the truth, which he feared would destroy the greatest thing he’d ever known. 

But Tetsuya turned sixteen today, and with the emperor to be officially crowned as ruler, the questions would begin. And Taiga would answer them with the honesty he’d denied Tetsuya his entire life. 

As they watched the ceremony on living room video terminal, Tetsuya’s head in Taiga’s lap, there was a comfortable, serene silence, and Taiga almost swore Tetsuya was asleep. No questions came. No confusion or fear. No demands for that which Taiga had always kept silent. Tetsuya watched, every so often sitting up to sip on his vanilla milkshake, and Taiga cherished those last few moments of peace. 

And though Taiga should be grateful, a great sadness seized his gut. Tetsuya was watching what was probably the most important event in his life, and he never knew what he was missing, what was taken from him, and what he would never have. 

All because of Taiga. 

The clan heads had deemed Tetsuya would only be allowed to live in ignorance, but Taiga would do anything for Tetsuya, even go to war with the clans on Tetsuya’s behalf, even risk losing him forever, just so Tetsuya could decide his own fate. 

Oh, Shintarou would kill him if he knew. 

Taiga set his mug on the coffee table. “Hey, kiddo. We need to talk.”

Tetsuya sat up, obedient as always, those blue eyes so big they looked like a limitless sky. He was adorable in his PJ bottoms and oversized sweatshirt, Taiga’s own, and Taiga wondered not for the first time what he’d done to deserve such a treasure to safeguard and cherish. 

Ruffling his own hair, Taiga battled his conscience before he finally spat, “You have to have questions, y’know? You’re sixteen now, and—”

“I do,” Tetsuya offered, patient and kind, a tiny smile upon his usually passive face, “have questions.”

Taiga gritted and waited for the worst. “Okay…”

“Why does Momoi-san insist on cutting lemons? Maybe it would be easier she brought oranges. We could peel the different sections then, and she wouldn’t have to cut them at all.”

Taiga slapped himself in the forehead. “Not questions about fruit. Questions about life and us and—”

“Oh.” Tetsuya took a moment, his eyes squinting just so, and then a slight blush spread across his cheeks. “Are…Are you going to ask Momoi-san to marry you? I think she’d say yes, if that’s what you’re wondering. Do you want me to ask her before you ask her?”

“No! Yes! I don’t know!” Taiga huffed. How the hell did he raise such a cheeky shit? His hands dropped from his hair to Tetsuya’s shoulders, holding him closely. “Tetsuya, I mean about us. As a family. You know I’m not your real brother. Haven’t you ever wondered why you live with me and not your family?”

The answer was instantaneous. “No.”

“No?”

“No. Should I have?” He shrugged and reached for his milkshake upon the coffee table and took a measured sip. “Taiga-kun is kind and generous and lets me drink three milkshakes a day.”

“That probably makes me the worst parent ever.”

“I think it makes you the best.”

“You’re sixteen. What the hell do you know?”

“Weren’t you sixteen when you took me in?”

Taiga sighed and glanced away, memories of those first sleepless nights and poorly changed diapers resurfacing. Back then, he’d prayed to whoever would listen that the Kiseki no Sedai didn’t find out about his failed mission until he had an adequate excuse, and a silent tremble wracked his frame as he remembered the clan heads praising him for his foresight and allowing him to keep the child, even after hiding Tetsuya from them for more than two years. 

So he reached out, dusting his thumb along Tetsuya’s cheek. “Yeah, I was, and it was the best decision I ever made.”

“And that’s why it doesn’t matter where I came from or why I’m here.” He tugged on Taiga’s pant leg to keep his attention and offered a brilliant smile. “I’m glad I met Taiga-san.”

Taiga surveyed Tetsuya closely, looking for any uncertainty in his eyes, but he saw none. So he wrapped an arm about the boy’s neck and drew him close, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of Tetsuya’s head as he finally released the tension he’d been holding for sixteen years in a violent tremble. Tetsuya endured it, resting his head upon Taiga’s chest and simply hugging his older brother back. 

They watched what remained of the coronation in silence, just comfortable in each other’s presence, before Taiga finally asked, “You really think Satsuki would say yes?”

“Aniki is an idiot sometimes.”

“Oi! You little punk! Just because I haven’t grounded you yet doesn’t mean I won’t start now!” 

Tetsuya laughed when Taiga pounced, and it was the greatest sound in the world. 

*^*^*

“You’re an idiot,” Daiki remarked but remained huddled in front of Taiga, staring at the cooing baby wrapped in Taiga’s black jacket like it had two heads. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know. Feed it?”

“To the clan heads?”

“Of course not,” Taiga scoffed, and he would have scratched his head if he had a free hand. As it were, he could drop the baby and the thing was so small and fragile and freaking pale, but when those blue eyes opened, Taiga swore it was like looking at the sky. “I couldn’t just leave him there, y’know? Only the prince was to live, but no intel we had ever said there were two of them.”

“Twin princes?” Daiki straightened his back. “Which one did you take?”

“The one that grabbed my finger.”

“Is he the older one or the younger one?”

“Damned if I know.”

Daiki shook his head, flabbergasted. “Seriously. An idiot. The one that grabbed…what if you picked the older one? Then the wrong prince will be on the throne.”

“We just committed regicide, Daiki. You really think it matters which kid succeeds his parents as long as one does?”

“I guess not.” Daiki glanced to the side and put his finger upon the young boy’s hand. Like an instinct, the pudgy baby reached out to wrap its tiny fingers about Daiki’s larger one. “Hm. I guess we can keep him if we don’t tell the heads. What’re you going to name him?”

“I thought Tetsuya, y’know?” Taiga couldn’t stop the smile that overcame his face. “Kinda after my brother but not.”

“Tetsu, huh?”

“Tetsu _ya_.”

“I like Tetsu.”

“No one asked you what you like.”

They were silent for a long moment, Daiki watching with utter fascination as Tetsuya nibbled on his finger while Taiga gently bounced the baby up and down. 

“He’s kinda perfect, isn’t he?” Daiki whispered. 

“I thought so, too.” _Sniff. Sniff._ “What’s that smell?” 

Daiki was up in a shot and heading toward the door. “I should probably check in with the heads, y’know? File a report and make sure no one saw you with Tetsu.”

“His name is Tetsuya, and why are you leaving all of a—” Taiga felt the sudden weight upon his arm and looked down the giggling baby who sounded like he was laughing at Taiga, the first of many times, for sure. “Oh, shit.”

The End

**Author's Note:**

> When in doubt, end on a poop joke cuz why not?


End file.
